2019 New York Laws
VAT - Vehicle and Traffic
Title 5 - Drivers' Licenses
Article 19-A - Special Requirements for Bus Drivers
509-A - Definitions.

§ 509-a. Definitions.  As used in this article the term: (1) bus shall
mean every motor vehicle, owned, leased, rented or otherwise  controlled
by  a motor carrier, which (a) is a school bus as defined in section one
hundred forty-two of this chapter or has a seating capacity of more than
ten adult passengers in addition to the driver and which is used for the
transportation of persons under the age of twenty-one or persons of  any
age  who  are  mentally or physically disabled to a place of vocational,
academic or religious instruction or religious service including nursery
schools, day care centers and camps, (b) is required to obtain  approval
to operate in the state as a common or contract carrier of passengers by
motor vehicle from the commissioner of transportation, or the interstate
commerce  commission,  (c) is regulated as a bus line by a city that has
adopted an ordinance, local law or charter to regulate or franchise  bus
line  operations  pursuant  to subdivision four of section eighty of the
transportation law, (d) is regulated as a van service  or  other  common
carrier  of  passengers  by motor vehicle covered under article seven of
the transportation law by a city with a population of over  one  million
pursuant  to  an  ordinance or local law adopted pursuant to subdivision
five of section eighty of the transportation law or (e) is operated by a
transit authority or municipality and is used to transport  persons  for
hire. Provided, however, that bus shall not mean an authorized emergency
vehicle  operated in the course of an emergency, or a motor vehicle used
in the transportation of agricultural workers to and from their place of
employment;
  (2) driver or bus  driver  shall  mean  every  person:
  (i)  who  is
self-employed  and  drives  a  bus  for  hire  or profit; or (ii) who is
employed by a motor carrier and operates a bus owned, leased  or  rented
by  such  employer;  or  (iii)  who as a volunteer drives a bus which is
owned, leased or rented by  a  motor  carrier.  Provided,  however,  bus
driver   shall  not  include  those  persons  who  are  engaged  in  the
maintenance, repair or garaging of such buses and in the course of their
duties must incidentally drive a bus without passengers, or  who,  as  a
volunteer,  drive  a  bus with passengers for less than thirty days each
year;
  (3) motor carrier shall mean any person, corporation, municipality, or
entity, public or private, who directs one or more bus drivers  and  who
operates  a  bus  wholly within or partly within and partly without this
state in connection with the business  of  transporting  passengers  for
hire  or in the operation or administration of any business, or place of
vocational, academic or religious instruction or religious  service  for
persons  under  the  age  of  twenty-one  or  persons of any age who are
mentally disabled including nursery schools, day care centers and camps,
or public  agency,  except  such  out-of-state  public  or  governmental
operators who may be exempted from the provisions of this article by the
commissioner through regulation promulgated by the commissioner;
  (4)  intoxicating  liquor  shall  mean  and include, alcohol, spirits,
liquor, wine, beer and cider having alcoholic content;
  (5) drug shall mean  any  substance  listed  in  section  thirty-three
hundred  six of the public health law not dispensed or consumed pursuant
to a lawful prescription;
  (6) controlled substance shall mean any substance  listed  in  section
thirty-three  hundred  six  of  the  public  health law not dispensed or
consumed pursuant to lawful prescription.
  (7) accident shall include any accident with another  vehicle,  object
or  person, which occurs in this state or elsewhere, in which any person
is killed or injured, or in which damage to  the  property  of  any  one
person,  including  the operator, in excess of one thousand five hundred
dollars is sustained, or in which damage in excess of two thousand  five

hundred  dollars  is  sustained  to  any  bus  as defined in section one
hundred four of this chapter; provided however that accidents  occurring
outside this state shall not be recorded on the driver's license record.